This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-290255, filed on Sep. 21, 2001: the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method and, more particularly, to a printing apparatus and a printing method for printing prescribed data on data receiving media such as passbooks and so forth.
A printing apparatus that performs the printing of high quality without affected by the surface condition of data receiving media such as cards, passbooks and other media is demanded in recent years. As one of this kind printing apparatus, a printing apparatus to use an intermediate transfer ribbon is well known. This type of printing apparatus comprises a printer portion and a transfer portion. The printer portion has a thermal head and an ink ribbon. The transfer portion has a heat roller and a back up roller.
The intermediate transfer ribbon is fed into the printer portion. In the printer portion, the thermal head is heated according to prescribed data and an ink of the ink ribbon is fused and prints prescribed data such as characters and bar codes on the surface of an intermediate transfer ribbon.
The intermediate transfer ribbon having prescribed data printed is fed between the heat roller and the back up roller in the transfer portion. At this time, an image receiving medium arranged to face its transfer surface to the intermediate transfer ribbon is simultaneously fed between the heat roller and the back up roller.
The heat roller is rotated in this state and the intermediate transfer ribbon and an image receiving medium are pushed against the back up roller and heated, and prescribed data are transferred on the surface of the image receiving medium. The intermediate transfer ribbon comprises a long base film and a transfer layer coated on this base film. In the transfer portion, the transfer layer is transferred on an image receiving medium together with prescribed data printed on the transfer layer.
On the transfer layer or an image receiving medium, prescribed data that are optically read may be printed sometimes. On the other hand, in order for preventing forgery of peculiar prescribed data on an image receiving medium, a protection film given with a transparent hologram in a specified pattern may be coated over an image receiving medium. The printing apparatus described above is capable of printing prescribed data on an image receiving medium and coating a surface protection film at the same time.
When reading prescribed data printed in a reading area of an image receiving medium that is coated with a protection film having the transparent hologram layer with an optical reading device, a prescribed pattern of a transparent hologram layer superposed on the prescribed data are read simultaneously and the prescribed data may not be read accurately or recognized in the image processing.
Further, data receiving media having the reading area and those having no reading area are supplied irregularly and therefore, it becomes difficult to overcoat the optimum protection film to these media, respectively. Further, if a protection film for an image receiving medium is coated over an image receiving medium having no reading area, prescribed data printed on the image receiving medium may not be covered partially by a prescribed pattern of a transparent hologram layer. As a result, there may be caused a problem that the sufficient forgery preventing effect may not be obtained.
It is an object of this invention to provide a printing apparatus and a printing method capable of surely reading prescribed data printed in a reading area, obtaining a sufficient forgery preventing effect and performing a high quality printing stably irrespective of the surface conditions of data receiving media.
According to this invention, a printing apparatus is provided. This printing apparatus comprises: a supply portion to supply an intermediate transfer medium provided with a transfer layer having a first area that has a prescribed pattern and a blank and transparent second area; a printer portion to print prescribed data on the transfer layer of the intermediate transfer medium supplied from the supply portion; a transfer portion to transfer the prescribed data printed by the printer portion onto an image receiving medium through the transfer layer; and a controller to control the printer portion and the transfer portion in a first mode to cover the entire image receiving medium by the first area and a second mode to cover the image receiving medium by the first and second areas. Further, according to this invention, a printing method is provided.
This printing method comprises: supplying a transfer layer having a first area in a prescribed pattern and a plank and transparent second area; printing prescribed data on corresponding prescribed positions of the transfer layer of the supplied intermediate transfer medium in a first mode to cover the entire image receiving medium and in a second mode to cover the data transfer medium by the first and second areas; and transferring the prescribed data printed in the corresponding prescribed areas in the first mode and the second modes on the image receiving medium.